From the sea, Wood Island Light looks peaceful, serene, and beautiful above the rocky shores and crashing seas of the Atlantic. Few know the story that has left the island haunted since the 1890s.

The lighthouse was built in 1808 and has hosted near 20 different lighthouse keepers in it's over 200 year long life. One of those lighthouse keepers was Thomas Henry Orcutt and he lived through the island's most grisly event.

It all started one night in 1890. A squatter lived on the west end of the island. 

He had just returned from a night on the mainland where he had gotten into a scuffle. He hunkered down in his makeshift shack.

A sheriff's deputy traveled to Wood Island after news of the scuffle. He found the squatter in his shack on the west end of the island, presumably to arrest him for his crimes earlier in the night.

The squatter attacked and murdered the sheriff's deputy. Soon, panic set in. He was met with the gravity of what he had just done and attempted to turn himself into the lighthouse keeper Thomas Henry Orcutt. Thomas turned him away.

Back at his squatter shack, the man ended his own life. The lore continues that the ghost of the murdered sheriff's deputy continues to haunt the island and the lighthouse today.

Thomas Henry Orcott continued to care for the lighthouse until 1905 with his dog named Sailor, who was trained to ring the fog bell with his mouth to greet passing ships.

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